Introduction to a Short History of Photography – Formalist Heady Pattern Version (2008)

"Introduction to a Short History of Photography–Formalist Heady Pattern Version" sheds a new light on early discussions of mass distribution of images. Florian Zeyfang´s video experiments with the photographs, the printed reproductions from the books that Benjamin had at hand when writing his essay “Short History Of Photography.” The video changes stills to moving images, searching for traces, zooming in, opening a new view onto materiality and structure not visible in the original print. Between the reproductions are shots of different contemporary sites, systematically ordered in six fields or themes, such as production (film set and laboratory), and reproduction (cinema and TV), and of moving and standstill; inside and outside. The fast edit and the soundtrack by Alejandra Salinas und Aeron Bergman render the initially still visible gesture of turning the pages into a rapid image cosmos.